Contents

Drone Squad

"All systems ready."

By themselves Tau Drones only have a very basic AI and rely highly on orders from their masters but, when linked together in a group the Drones can share their intelligence enabling them to act independently on the battlefield.

Tactics

The Drone Squad's Twin-Linked Pulse Carbine has a very short range but is used even when engaged in melee with enemy squads. This short range is beneficial as it ensures enemy units will be in proximity when a drone activates its Self Destruct.

The main use of these units is to take advantage of their vehicle armour (which somewhat compensates for their low health) and use them to take on enemy melee units such as Grey Knights or Possessed Space Marines. In large numbers they easily overwhelm even the most elite melee specialists. They aren't efficient in very large numbers so more than 2 squads working together would be a waste.

They aren't cheap and die very fast under AV or just heavy AI fire, so make sure to look after them.

Unfortunately, both the cost to reinforce the Drone Squad and the reinforce time make it difficult to use them too offensively. Note that area of effect abilities (like the Librarian's Smite) will kill them quickly because of their low health.

Massed Drone Squads become more viable when the Ethereal is on the field. He provides a 60% bonus to the health of the Drones, making it much easier to earn back their expensive cost.

Abilities

Burrow

Burrow

Hotkey: B

Requires

Nothing

Target Types

Own squad

Range

0

Area of effect

None

Cooldown time

4.5 s

Effects

The Drones burrow into the ground thus becoming Infiltrated. In this state they can not move or attack. However, when an enemy enters within the Area of Effect the Drones unburrow and start to engage the target. Upon unburrowing the Drone Squad deals 50-100 damage in a radius of 10 to all enemy non-building targets and knocks back enemy units (40 force).

Self Destruct

Self Destruct

Hotkey: Del

Requires

Nothing

Target Types

All enemy units and buildings

Range

0

Area of effect

4

Cooldown time

0 s

Effects

When a Drone loses all its health it explodes in a violent manner inflicting damage on nearby enemies and sending infantry flying (45-60 force).